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skaldic

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Sigv Lv 8I

R. D. Fulk (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Lausavísur 8’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 709.

Sigvatr ÞórðarsonLausavísur
789

Eigi sôtuð ítrum,
Ívarr, meginfjarri,
orð þás ossum fœrðak
— at sóttisk lof — dróttni.
Þérs, alls hann réð hlýða
hróðr sínn, lofi þínu
— hljóðs hefk beitt á báða
bekki — vant at hnekkja.

Ívarr, eigi sôtuð meginfjarri ítrum, þás fœrðak orð dróttni ossum; lof sóttisk at. Þérs vant at hnekkja lofi þínu, alls hann réð hlýða hróðr sínn; hefk beitt hljóðs á báða bekki.

Ívarr, you did not sit very far from the glorious one when I conveyed words to our lord; praise rushed forth. For you it is inadvisable to reject praise of yourself, since he saw fit to listen to his encomium; I have requested a hearing from both benches.

Mss: Mork(12v) (Mork); Flat(200ra-b) (Flat); H(50v-51r), Hr(36vb) (H-Hr)

Readings: [2] ‑fjarri: ‘fí[…]rrí’ H    [3] þás (‘þá er’): er ek Flat, þar er Hr;    ossum: ‘aurum’ Flat, oss um H;    fœrðak: so H, Hr, ferðak Mork, fœrða Flat    [4] sóttisk: ‘sattíz’ Hr    [5] Þérs (‘þer er’): yðr er Flat;    hann: om. Hr    [6] þínu: mínu Hr    [7] hljóðs: ‘[…]ioðs’ H;    báða: ‘[…]aða’ H    [8] bekki: bekk H;    vant: vant er Flat;    hnekkja: ‘hneck[…]’ H

Editions: Skj AI, 268, Skj BI, 248, Skald I, 128, NN §§674, 2480D; Mork 1867, 76, Mork 1928-32, 206, Andersson and Gade 2000, 226, 477 (MH); Flat 1860-8, III, 360; Fms 6, 288, Fms 12, 153; Jón Skaptason 1983, 191, 317-18.

Context: When Sigvatr is praised at a feast for a poem he delivers in honour of King Óláfr Haraldsson, a district chieftain by the name of Ívarr hvíti ‘the White’ chides him for praising only the king and expecting reward from him alone, neglecting other important men. Subsequently, with Óláfr’s grudging permission Sigvatr goes to Vík (Viken) to visit Ívarr, saying he has composed a poem about him. But Ívarr gives him a hostile reception, saying it is just like a skald, when a king grows tired of him, to go off and try to extract reward from farmers. In response, Sigvatr delivers this vísa, whereupon Ívarr agrees to listen to the poem that Sigvatr has composed. Sigvatr recites it (none is quoted) and is rewarded well. 

Notes: [1] ítrum ‘the glorious one’: Finnur Jónsson (Skj B, followed by Jón Skaptason 1983, 191) takes this adj. to be attributive, qualifying dróttni ‘lord’, and thus meginfjarri ‘very far away’ would be used absolutely. Kock (NN §674) argues for the present interpretation of the syntax, with the substantivized adj. ítrum as a complement to prep. meginfjarri . — [2] Ívarr: See Context. Ívarr’s son Hákon became a threat to the power of King Haraldr harðráði ‘Hard-rule’ Sigurðarson, and he is the subject of Hákonar saga Ívarssonar (see SkP II, lxii). — [4] lof sóttisk at ‘praise rushed forth’: (a) This reading takes sóttisk and lof, consecutive in the text, together and is based on the facts that m. v. sœkjask most commonly has the meaning ‘to advance’ (as applied to a piece of work), and transitive sœkja at means ‘rush at’. In this reading orð ‘words’ and færðak ‘I conveyed’ (both l. 3) are also taken together (so also Kock in Skald; NN §2480D). (b) The syntactic connections are reversed in the reading of Finnur Jónsson in Skj B, who forms an intercalary clause orð at sóttisk, taking the meaning to be ‘words were found to the purpose’; so also Jón Skaptason (1983): ‘Words came together’. It has been suggested (Finnur Jónsson, LH I, 587) that the praise-poem for Óláfr was possibly Sigv Nesv. — [5] hlýða ‘to listen’: Most eds emend to heyra ‘hear’ for the sake of the skothending (with þérs), but the rhyme þérs : hlýða (i.e. r : ð) is licit: see Andersson and Gade (2000, 477), and Note to Lv 16/4. Note that réð cannot rhyme because frumhending (the first part of an internal rhyme) in position 4 in odd-numbered lines is very rare and occurs only in stamhent (Gade 1995a, 6, 249). — [7-8] á báða bekki ‘from both benches’: That is, from Óláfr’s party and from Ívarr’s. The reference is to the opposing sides of a Norse hall, the king or chieftain sitting on one side, with honoured guests opposite him.

References

  1. Bibliography
  2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
  3. Fms = Sveinbjörn Egilsson et al., eds. 1825-37. Fornmanna sögur eptir gömlum handritum útgefnar að tilhlutun hins norræna fornfræða fèlags. 12 vols. Copenhagen: Popp.
  4. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  5. NN = Kock, Ernst Albin. 1923-44. Notationes Norrœnæ: Anteckningar till Edda och skaldediktning. Lunds Universitets årsskrift new ser. 1. 28 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
  6. Andersson, Theodore M. and Kari Ellen Gade, trans. 2000. Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (1030-1157). Islandica 51. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
  7. Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995a. The Structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt Poetry. Islandica 49. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  8. Flat 1860-8 = Gudbrand Vigfusson [Guðbrandur Vigfússon] and C. R. Unger, eds. 1860-8. Flateyjarbók. En samling af norske konge-sagaer med indskudte mindre fortællinger om begivenheder i og udenfor Norge samt annaler. 3 vols. Christiania (Oslo): Malling.
  9. LH = Finnur Jónsson. 1920-4. Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie. 3 vols. 2nd edn. Copenhagen: Gad.
  10. Mork 1928-32 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1928-32. Morkinskinna. SUGNL 53. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.
  11. Jón Skaptason. 1983. ‘Material for an Edition and Translation of the Poems of Sigvat Þórðarson, skáld’. Ph.D. thesis. State University of New York at Stony Brook. DAI 44: 3681A.
  12. Mork 1867 = Unger, C. R., ed. 1867. Morkinskinna: Pergamentsbog fra første halvdel af det trettende aarhundrede. Indeholdende en af de ældste optegnelser af norske kongesagaer. Oslo: Bentzen.
  13. SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
  14. Internal references
  15. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Hákonar saga Ívarssonar’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=141> (accessed 19 March 2024)
  16. (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, Magnúss saga góða ok Haralds harðráða’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=147> (accessed 19 March 2024)
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